Albert Weinberg

(9 April 1922 - 29 September 2011, Belgium)

Dan Cooper - Le Triangle Bleu

Albert Weinberg studied law before he entered the comic world. Working through the World's Press agency, he started his career assistanting Victor Hubinon on series like 'Blondin et Cirage', ' Tarawa, atoll sanglant' and the early episodes of 'Buck Danny'. He eventually took over the Hubinon series 'Joe la Tornade' in Bimbo completely and continued it in cooperation with Jean-Michel Charlier in 1949.

Luc Condor (Heroic)

He additionally made illustrations for various magazines, and was present in Fernand Cheneval's Héroïc Albums with the science-fiction comic series 'Luc Condor' (1949-1954) and 'Roc Meteor' (1955-1956).

Les Nouvelles Aventures de Robinson Crusoe (Tintin #19, 1954)

In 1950, Albert Weinberg started working for Tintin, where he created the Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Major Dan Cooper. Weinberg's comic book scenarios were anchored in news events and current issues. Weinberg's aviation series appeared in Tintin from 1954 to 1972 and were subsequently continued in Super As between 1978 and 1980 and then directly in albums until 1992. Book collections were published by Lombard, and later by Fleurus, Novedi and eventually Dargaud.

In the early stages of his series, Weinberg was strongly influenced by Jacobs and used science-fiction elements in his stories. After three episodes written by Jean-Michel Charlier, he continued the series on his own as a classic adventure series until he turned to more dramatic stories that delved deeper in the psychology of the characters in the 1980s.

Between 1962 and 1970 Weinberg additionally created a series of short science-fiction stories starring 'Alain Landier' for Tintin, as well as some short stories starring 'Vicky' in 1969 and 1970. During his period with Tintin magazine he also assisted Hergé with the documentation for Tintin's moon adventures, and also assisted Jacobs and Cuvelier for a short period.

Weinberg left Tintin in 1972 after a dispute with editor-in-chief Greg and began other associations. He was present in the Belgian press, creating series like 'Seraph', 'Le Vicomte' and 'Les Aquanautes' for newspaper Le Soir. For the Italian magazine Corriere dei Ragazzi he made comics like 'Aquila' and the James Bond-like 'Giovanni di Celli'.

Les Aquanautes

In 1971 he drew 'Knut Andersen' in the Dutch magazine Pep and by 1973 Weinberg went to work for the German publisher Springer and created 'Barracuda', a series that in Zack (Germany), Super As (France) and Wham! (Belgium, Holland).

Barracuda

Weinberg has additionally made a couple of commercial comics, such as 'Bib, le Rallye de l'Enfer' for Michelin (1974-75), 'Aviation Militaire Suisse' for the Swiss Bank Association (1989) and 'Où vas-tu Venessa?' for the Château d'Oex tourist office in Switzerland (1993). In 1993 he launched a new series about espionnage called 'Agent spécial - Le Roumain'. Only one album was published by Agorma, after which the series was not continued due to lack of success.

Being one of the "Last Mohicans" of his generation of comic artists, Weinberg continued to attend comics festivals throughout Europe in later life. He passed away in September 2011.